Geez, how many times have I read something like this?
I grew up on Long Island and have lived there and here in Hudson county just about all my life and the only people who ever grouse about some stigma on the Jersey side are people who aren't from the area. None of my Manhattan friends (who grew up in Manhattan) or friends and family in LI and NJ feel any stigma about this side at all - it's all the NYC area, and you live where you live and it's psychically New York City even if it says New Jersey. And everyone knows the JC and Hoboken had a bad rap once - but so did the Village and Williamsburg (was way worse, by the way) once.
The people who do talk about a Jersey stigma and those who have some weird self-prohibition against leaving Manhattan because they came from somewhere outside of the area, are killing themselves to pay their $2,500 a month for a one bedroom somewhere between the rivers and feel they'd die if it ever got out to their friends and family in Podunk that they went to a party in New Jersey (so not glamorous!) or are so lacking in self-confidence that they have to spend a lot of effort justifying why their phone doesn't start with 212.
I'm going back to my coffee, reading about the Yanks and looking forward to my quick run into dinner in Tribeca tonight without worrying about my feelings on where I live.

I think that posting articles like this strengthens the position that GP should continue in his role as JCLists media watchdog. My only regret is that I will not have the pleasure of reading the article when FT shows up on my stoop this morning.

The only thing I question is the statement about DTJC going from upperclass in one generation - except for the area around VVP, I always thought the area was middle class and working class Euro ethnics and their descendants until the mid 60s.

Spinning their wheels
282 new signs encourage biking in JC - but there are no bike paths

Ricardo Kaulessar -- Hudson Reporter -- 08/31

More than 200 signs were posted last month all over Jersey City with the words "BIKE ROUTE" and "SHARE THE ROAD."

The signs, meant to encourage biking in the city, were posted thanks to a $100,000 state Department of Transportation grant.

However, the city presently does not intend to include actual bike paths near the signs to make biking easier.

In other towns in New Jersey, areas designated as bike lanes are six feet across and have striped paint to mark them.

According to the Jersey City Engineering Department, 282 bike signs have been installed since last month.

Various city officials confirmed that actual bike paths have not been approved so far because the city does not want to take away street parking.

In January of 2006, the Planning Board approved an amendment to the city's master plan to include the "Jersey City Bikeway System" plan, but excluded the bicycle lanes.

The signs signal the implementation of an extensive bicycle system throughout Jersey City that eventually will include bike parking facilities and a program to encourage bicycling for commuting and for recreation.

Downtown resident Dan Levin, a bike enthusiast who commutes daily to his picture framing business in Hoboken, has mixed feelings about the program.

"What Jersey City is trying to do is encouraging," Levin said. "If someone bicycles, that is one less car on the road."

But he noted, "The signs don't do anything by themselves. It's an excuse in going through a process and not achieving any real results."

Activist asks for paths

Levin said that the good-government group that he co-founded, Civic JC, submitted a request recently asking the city to reopen and amend the city's Bicycle Plan section of the Jersey City Master Plan to include on-street bicycle lanes in downtown and citywide.

In the year 2000, the city had the Transportation Policy Institute of Rutgers University prepare the Jersey City Bicycle Plan for the Jersey City Division of Planning.

Under the plan, the city was to be divided into five sections with signs pointing out various destinations: downtown (near the waterfront), The Heights, Journal Square, Lafayette-Greenville, and Liberty State Park.

Now that the signs are installed, a study will be conducted by the city's Department of Public Works to determine if the bikeway system can include actual bike lanes.

The lanes would be placed in possible locations such as Mallory Avenue, Washington Boulevard, Washington Street, Christopher Columbus Drive, and Phillip Street.

There is also consideration to link the bikeway system to the East Coast Greenway, a 2,500-mile series of nature paths and roadways that runs from Maine to Florida. The Greenway will likely also include the Sixth Street Embankment in downtown Jersey City if it can be acquired by the city.

Share the road?

City Council President Mariano Vega said last week that he understands why it would make sense to put bike lanes alongside the signs.

He said that the City Council studied the idea of the lanes, but had to concede that parking would be taken away.

"The real concern for the city was that we did not take out parking on either side of the road, because it would create an inconvenience and a loss of revenue," Vega said. "What we decided to do is to encourage biking, nevertheless, and put the bike signs at critical turning intersections so people can know where they are going to turn."

Vega said there are other bike-friendly initiatives that the city will look to implement, such as bike racks at train stations and other destinations. The bike racks are expected to be acquired under another state grant of $300,000.

The 2000 Rutgers study also recommends strengthening the city's bikeway system with a Jersey City Bicycle Map, encouraging employees to commute by bicycle, and bicycle awareness education.

Vega, as the Director of the Hudson County Department of Parks, Engineering & Planning, also would like to see a countywide system to complement the Jersey City Bikeway System.

Signs of any biking life

According to information from the 2000 Census, out of the 240,000-plus residents of Jersey City, 0.25 percent, or about 600, were bike commuters, although that number is believed to be a low estimate.

Other than the Census, there is no data that can be found at the Transportation Policy Institute of Rutgers University website (www.njbikeped.org) or on the section of the state's DOT website devoted to biking (http://www.state.nj.us/transportation/commuter/bike/resources.shtm).

According to Helmets.org, there are 85 million bicycle riders in the U.S.; 784 bicyclists died on US roads in 2005, and 92 percent of them died in crashes with motor vehicles.

Ricardo Kaulessar can be reached at rkaulessar@hudsonreporter.com

Public schools open Thursday
Changes include some local control, new middle school

Ricardo Kaulessar -- Hudson Reporter 08/31

NEW SCHOOL OPENS ? The Heights Middle School (Franklin Williams Middle School) on Collard Street in the Heights section of the city has opened after a year of delays.
When Jersey City schools open this coming Thursday, Sept. 6, 42 elementary and high school schools will host approximately 29,000 students.

Among those schools will be a new middle school in Jersey City Heights.

Also, as the district transitions from state control back to local control, the year will see a number of administrative changes.

The contract for School Superintendent Dr. Charles Epps, a longtime Jersey City educator who has held the post since 2000, is set to expire on June 30, 2008. His tenure has been marked by criticism of his lavish spending of school funds during a 2004 trip to England and a run for political office in 2005. The contract is currently under consideration by State Education Commissioner Lucille Davy.

A parents' group called JC Families for Better Schools has called for Epps to receive a one-year contract with renewal to be determined based on performance.

The Jersey City school system has been under state control since 1989. Legislation was approved in 2005 that will start the process of moving back to city supervision in the next couple of years.

In July, the state recommended the return of two out of five key areas to local control because those areas earned high scores during state monitoring, but the district will still have to improve in three other areas, including "instruction and program."

The total budget for the Jersey City school system for the 2007-2008 school year is $632 million.

Can't wait for new school

Advertisement

Twelve-year-old Erin Wadley is looking forward to starting eighth grade in her new school in the Heights.

Heights Middle School 7 (also known as Franklin Williams Middle School) on Collard Street is finally opening. The school was slated to open last September, but was bogged down in construction-related delays.

According to Wadley's mother, Camille Tyler, this summer parents met with the new principal of the school, Susan Decker, who assured parents that the school would open.

"Once she told us, we felt confident that it would open," Tyler said. "I am happy that the school is opening for the kids."

Wadley will be one of nearly 1,000 students enrolled in the new school, which serves students in grades six through eight who come from nearby Public Schools 6, 8, and 25.

"Everyone has been talking about how we had to wait to get into our new school," Wadley said. "Now we are going and that's good."

Wadley was also able to meet her new classmates early. Last week, the students spent three days at the school for orientation before school officially starts.

Seventy new teachers


Jersey City school district spokesperson Dr. Gerard Crisonino said there will be 70 new teachers in the school system, with many employees being reassigned to fill vacancies left behind by those who retired or decided to leave the system.

He also said last week that this year the district will study the implementation of the High School Initiative Program (HIP) for September 2008. The state-mandated program calls for the city's six high schools to be restructured so that students who want to learn a trade can take not only general high school classes, but also extra classes connected to their field of study.

This type of educational structure is also known as "small learning communities" or "schools within schools" that are organized around career themes. Crisonino said it would require upgrades to equipment in the schools.

"We're really trying to get our children prepared vocationally for some kind of post-secondary employment," Crisonino said.

Small school moves


Another change in the district is that some schools have relocated.

Liberty High School, which has the smallest enrollment of the six city high schools, has moved from its former location in Journal Square to the former site of the Adult Education High School on Sip Avenue.

The Adult Education High School will move to the old School No. 3 building on Bright Street in downtown Jersey City.

On the path to local control


Crisonino said a meeting is scheduled for this month for members of the school board, Epps, and Davy to discuss the process toward returning the district to local control. Then Epps will schedule an open forum with the public later in the month to explain the process.

Earlier this year, the school district underwent NJ QSAC (Quality Single Accountability Continuum) monitoring, a process in which the state checks for signs of progress in five areas: instruction and program, personnel, operations management, school governance, and fiscal management.

The Jersey City school system scored 89 percent in governance and 92 percent in fiscal management. But the district only met 57 percent of the indicators in instruction and program, 58 percent of the indicators in personnel, and 74 percent in operations management.

The state requires districts that receive between 50 percent and 80 percent to put together a corrective action plan for those areas by the middle of this month.

Regarding Epps' contract, Crisonino said Epps has not released any comments on his contract status and had not authorized Crisonino to make any comments. Epps earns approximately $225,000 a year, and will likely receive a three-year contract if it is renewed.

Parents must get involved


"Parents must get involved beyond the bake sale." That was Elizabeth Perry's advice to parents for the upcoming school year.

Perry works for the Board of Education as a volunteer coordinator, helping to promote relationships with the community. In 2005 she founded Parents In Action, a grassroots organization that has advocated for more parental involvement in the schools and for school board meetings to be televised.

Perry is also the founder of the Kasserian Ingera Education Services, a for-profit company that puts together PowerPoint and DVD presentations to train school officials to work better with parents.

Perry is also the mother of two children - a daughter going into the eighth grade and a son who will be a junior in high school.

Perry said parents should be more involved in their children's schools, as they are offered many opportunities for involvement under the federal No Child Left Behind Act and state education rules such as school choice.

"The more the parents are involved, the better the education of their kids," Perry said. "What I have seen is one, the parents don't feel welcome, and two, the administrators are intimidated."

Ricardo Kaulessar can be reached at rkaulessar@hudsonreporter.com

You live where?

The Financial Times of London
August 31
By Christopher Bowe in New York

I?ve become used to the looks of horror passing over people?s faces when I tell them I?ve moved from the East Village of Manhattan to Jersey City, New Jersey. ?Oh ... ? is the near universal response as they verbally start to back away. One friend asked ?How do you get there??, as if it might require a flight. Another wanted to know if I?d stolen my first car yet. And when I told a colleague about my relocation, she recounted a fearful tale of going to ?Jersey? to buy her new Mercedes-Benz but feeling so embarrassed about having license plates from the state that, upon arriving home in New York, she removed them and kept the car in a garage until replacements came.

I?ll admit that Jersey City, New Jersey is an awkward name; two mentions of ?Jersey? in the same breath is too much for most New Yorkers. And many people have long associated the town with severe industrial decay and political corruption.

But these days, Jersey City is a thriving boom town, in the midst of a construction surge that could add 65,000 new housing units in 25 years, all priced well below New York?s red-hot property market. With a new baby in tow, my wife and I were able to find a late-19th-century, two-storey apartment more than twice the size of our old East Village space for roughly the same cost. Bars, restaurants and shops ? some new and trendy, some old mainstays ? are sprinkled throughout a neighbourhood sprouting from decades of change. A walk through its green spaces is like a tour through prewar America and the state park along New York Harbor, with views to the Statue of Liberty, is only a 15-minute stroll away.

As Jersey City residents, my wife and I no longer pay New York City personal income tax, a not insignificant boost to our standard of living. And my ride to work ? on the PATH train that runs under the Hudson River ? is no longer the one I used to take using Manhattan subways from the East Village.

Yet, in New York, Jersey City still prompts people to raise an sceptical eyebrow. It?s one of those places that is so very close to a great world city yet somehow ever so far away. In fact, my simple trip to work in Manhattan could be the least respected quick commute in the world.

That?s not to say there aren?t other people with the same problem.

In London, the rehabilitation of the Docklands, an area of shipping and rail terminals just east of the City financial centre, opened it up to high-quality commercial and residential developments; there?s even a Gordon Ramsay pub there now. But those who have left more established neighbourhoods for the converted lofts and modern condominiums further east still get questions about what they were thinking.

?Everyone asks when we?re coming back to civilisation,? says Frank Smith, who moved to a penthouse in Limehouse Basin with his partner, Christopher Wilks, last year. ?Most of the clientele for our cabinet-making business is in the West End and Chelsea. And when our friends visit, they feel they?re coming on an excursion; nine times out of ten we tell them to bring their clothes and stay over.?

Partly because of these reactions, Smith has realised that he, too, is a city-centre snob. ?Our apartment is beautiful, it overlooks a marina, we have one of the best views in London ? and I can?t wait to sell it,? he says.

Robert Lang, an urban planning expert and director of the Metropolitan Institute at Virginia Tech university, confirms that Smith is facing the same problem in the Docklands that I am in Jersey City. ?There?s a legacy, a stigma,? he says. ?But it?s just a near-miss from some of the most glorious places in the world. Both got remade because of proximity.?

Istanbul offers another, older case study. Continents really are crossed as commuters drive over the Bosphorus from the city?s suburban Asian side to its European cultural and business centre. The latter is synonymous with urban chic, while the former is ?totally the opposite of hip?, says Istanbul native Defne Chaffin.

Residents of San Francisco, one of the US?s most fabled cities, look just as unfavourably upon Oakland, its neighbour across the bay. ?People try to convince themselves? that living outside San Francisco itself is pleasant and ?there are some militant East Bayers?, says one pharmaceutical executive who has lived in the better known city for 20 years. But ?Oakland [still] has an inferiority complex.?

Water is a common divide for such perceptions. It also separates the Asian financial capital and former British colony of Hong Kong from Kowloon in mainland China. Although it?s just a short, one-train-stop commute from one to the other, many regard the journey as a jump from glittering city to the ?dark side?. ?Kowloon really is too much of China,? says Peter McMillan, a financial analyst who was born and raised in the area.

Still, since moving to New York in 2005, even he now agrees that the stigma I face ? ?the distaste when one tells people they live in Jersey and the funny look on their faces? ? is worse.

Doug Muzzio, professor of public policy at Baruch College in New York, thinks the situation is best summed up by a famous 1976 New Yorker cover, which showed a Manhattanite?s view from 9th Avenue. New Jersey is just a strip of dirt almost as distant as the Pacific Ocean. ?New Yorkers are a chauvinistic bunch,? he says.

But that was 30 years ago, when Jersey City was indeed a troubled ghost town, a steel-spaghetti mess of abandoned railyards, decaying piers and warehouses. Today, it is full of gleaming new skyscrapers housing high-profile companies, such as Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan Chase. The downtown area, along the river and facing Manhattan, has been rejuvenated. Once neglected 19th- and early-20th-century brownstones ? famously offered for $7,500 in a radio advertisement broadcast during a 1976 New York Yankees? World Series baseball game ? are now valued at $1m. New hotels are popping up. And residential construction is booming.

Prime new waterfront condominium projects include 77 Hudson and a Trump tower, with luxury units offering a bird?s eye view of Manhattan, priced from $500,000 to $1m. Others are Grove Point, Athena Group?s ?A? building and LeFrak Corporation?s new tower at Newport, an extension of the ground-breaking development that turned the railyards into a suburban-urban mini-city on the river.

Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas is designing his first large-scale US residential project, a 52-storey tower of stacked rectangular blocks for artists? lofts, a gallery, condos, a hotel and shops, to serve as the centrepiece of an arts district planned near the hulking shell of a power station. The city?s foreboding, massive, run-down hospital, located on a hill away from the waterfront in what locals call ?the real Jersey City?, is now an art deco condo building, with a penthouse that recently sold for $2.3m. And Liberty Harbour, from developer Peter Mocco and architect Andre?s Duany, is transforming an abandoned plot along a tidal basin into new streets of old-style, low-rise city residences.

The idea, says Bob Cotter, city planning director, is to emphasise a ?human scale?, encouraging foot traffic and continuity with the past. It?s an attempt to rebuild the best of Jersey City life before the 1970s, when residents began moving to the suburbs en masse. ?Essentially the whole downtown section of town went from being upper class to abandoned in a decade,? he says.

That swift demise is what makes Jersey City an excellent test case for redevelopment and reputation recovery, according to urban planning experts. Its initiatives, successes, failures and future will be closely watched.

More broadly, Lang says, it is part of a global trend changing the dynamics of the world?s great cities. Central, first-tier, neighbourhoods are not enough to support growing economies and middle-class populations any more; urban property prices are soaring and developers have run out of space on which to build both homes and offices. As a result, the orbiting cloud of the huge metropolis must expand, once-maligned surrounding areas must be enveloped and, eventually, long-held myths and stereotypes must be destroyed.

?The scale of the metropolitan areas around the world is so much bigger that [what is considered to be] the core must be bigger,? Lang says. ?In those terms, Jersey City is at the centre of it all.?

Of course, my Jersey City is an almost 30-year work in progress and some of the worries that people have about it are legitimate. In spite of improvements, including new housing, the city?s schools have been under state control for two decades because of historically low quality, which continues to discourage young families from coming to the area. Last year saw the launch of a large road resurfacing project but other infrastructure is stressed. The city is also poorer than the national average, with 19 per cent of residents living below the poverty line. And crime, which had been on the rise, only started to fall last year, bucking regional and national trends, which the mayor attributes to his plan to form a gang task force and increase the number of police. These are the growing pains of a city that fell fast and hard even by global standards.

There are things I miss about living in New York too. Late-night food can be challenging to find in Jersey City and the energy and verve of street life isn?t the same. ?Cool? does count in terms of coveted places to live and all the disrespected commuter towns suffer from a deficit of this elusive quality; quiet is always a double-edged sword, no matter what continent you?re living on.

Even Cotter acknowledges that Jersey City will never be Manhattan, just as Oakland will never be San Francisco and Kowloon will never be Hong Kong. Still, he says, at some point in the future, it ?might be better than Brooklyn?. And perhaps that?s the real contest: to be the next best, and closest, residential destination.

Jersey City mayor Jerramiah Healy, who is a vivid proxy for his city (unpolished and slightly dishevelled with an accent echoing of an older era in the region) also knows he is fighting a pitched battle. ?I can?t stop people from saying New Jersey or Jersey City is second-rate. You can?t persuade all the people to see the light. [But] if you visit our city, you?ll see the secret is out.?

I realise it?s a state of the human condition to justify living in any area, particularly if it?s less desirable. Within me now, there is a little part of the militant East Bayers the pharmaceutical executive knows and the Istanbul Asian-siders who force their friends to come visit. You get the feeling that people who move to Manhattan from elsewhere like to to reinvent themselves as ultra-New-Yorkers by denigrating places like Jersey City. But the city changes and the search for better living is its lifeblood. Having resided in Jersey City for 12 months now, I swear it all melts together into one New York, except I now have more space for less money, better views and, perhaps most importantly, no attitude.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007
Link

Wolfpack thug tried to snap attack pic four teens arrested, 5th suspect at large

Saturday, September 01, 2007
By KEN THORBOURNE
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

Four juvenile thugs - one only 13 years old - have been arrested in the beating of a 60-year-old Jersey City man last Saturday morning, Jersey City police said yesterday.

One brazen teen even pulled out his cell phone camera to take a picture during the attack, according to the victim.

Eighteen-year-old Jerrick Taylor is also being sought in connection with the incident, police said.

The attack, at around 5:45 a.m. on Bramhall Avenue near Seidler Street, left Robert Wilkinson with a broken left knee and four cracked ribs, one of which punctured a lung, officials said.

From his hospital bed at the Jersey City Medical Center yesterday, Wilkinson applauded the arrests.

"I felt so good (about the arrests)," said Wilkinson, an unemployed Vietnam veteran. "It says to me someone must care. Someone must be doing what they ought to do."

The four accused - all Jersey City residents - were arrested Wednesday and Thursday, police said. In addition to the 13-year-old boy, two boys, 16 and 17, and a 17-year-old girl were also busted, police said.

All four have been charged with robbery and assault and are being held at the Hudson County Youth House in Secaucus, police said.

Having purchased cigarettes and coffee at a Communipaw Avenue gas station, Wilkinson said, he was on his way back to his Union Street apartment when he walked past five teens sitting on a Bramhall Avenue stoop.

"No words were exchanged," Wilkinson said. "I went past them 10 or 15 steps when I heard steps behind me, they were running

"They hit me and knocked me out. Once I hit the ground they did everything they could. It was mostly foot action."

The stompfest ceased for a moment and Wilkinson dragged himself across the street, he said, but the teens chased him and continued to treat him as a human soccer ball.

"I said 'I told you I ain't got no money,'" Wilkinson said he pleaded at one point. "One guy looked in my wallet and gave it back. Another guy tried to take pictures with his cell phone."

The teens finally relented and ran down Bramhall toward Ocean Avenue, Wilkinson said.

"I feel like there is a serious problem going on," Wilkinson said. "I think it really started when kids started having kids."

Wilkinson's left leg is in a full cast and his punctured lung has been plugged by a pen-sized tube, he said. He said he didn't know when he will be released.

Mayor Jerramiah Healy credited "around-the-clock" police work for the arrests.

Anyone with information about Taylor's whereabouts is asked to call the police tip line at (201) 547-JAIL.

EPPS ON HOLD
Ed board will have say in superintendent's future

Saturday, September 01, 2007
By KEN THORBOURNE
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

Today was supposed to be D-Day for Jersey City Superintendent of Schools Charles T. Epps to find out if the state intends to renew his contract.

But he'll have to wait.

According to the terms of Epps's latest three-year contract, the state Department of Education had until today to decide whether he should continue to lead the state's second-largest school district beyond next June 30, the expiration date of his current contract.

But in light of a recent state decision to return governance powers to the local Jersey City school board, the Epps decision is going to be put on hold, said Kathryn Forsyth, a spokeswoman for state Commissioner of Education Lucille Davy.

The local board could be fully empowered in the next couple of months, so Davy wants to make the decision with input from its members, Forsyth said.

Normally, local school boards appoint superintendents. But as a state takeover district since 1989, the Jersey City board has only had advisory powers.

Davy is scheduled to meet with local school board members on Sept. 12, officials said.

Epps declined to comment about the issue, but he said earlier this week that he hadn't heard from Davy.

Forsyth said Davy had "reached out" to Epps, and had spoken to Jersey City Board of Education Chairman William DeRosa.

"We have a lot of questions how it all works," said DeRosa. "Of course, we are going to bring up the contract."

Forsyth emphasized that Davy could make a decision on Epps's contract prior to the board becoming fully empowered.

The state Board of Education is scheduled to consider a resolution handing back governance to the local Jersey City school board on Wednesday and that could be the precursor to a transition period, Forsyth said.

Appointed by the state to run the district seven years ago, Epps, 63, earns $230,000 a year as superintendent and receives another $49,000 annually as a state assemblyman in the 31st District. He will step down from the Legislature at the end of the year.

Yeah, give me some Wall St. gangsters anytime over the thugs that hang out on Wayne.

Quote:


Fairmount.... It is shady looking- We'll see if I survive

Quote:


Good public statement to make, so what do you intend to do about it Mr Mayor?

Four teens busted, fifth sought, in 'wolfpack' beating, cops say
by The Jersey Journal
Friday August 31, 2007, 1:25 PM
Jersey City police say four teenagers, including a 13-year-old, have been arrested and an 18-year-old is being sought in the brutal beating of a 60-year-old man last week.

In addition to the 13-year-old boy, police say they have arrested a 16-year-old boy and a 17-year-old boy as well as a 17-year-old girl. The arrests happened Wednesday and yesterday and were reported by police today.

The fifth suspect, Jerrick Taylor, 18, is being sought and police say they are investigating whether the group may be linked to similar "wolf pack" incidents.

"While I commend the around-the-clock effort of our various police divisions that worked this case until these inexplicably violent street punks were caught, I have to admonish the family members and guardians of these juveniles who allow these kids to be out all night long and get into who knows what kind of trouble," Mayor Jerramiah Healy said in a written statement.

If you look around at the other clubs that have the amenities that Brick Haus is offering the $69 a month is a steal! 15" LCD's on each cardio piece, 6 50" LCD or Plasma TV's throughout the first floor. Group exercise, huge locker rooms with a sauna and steam room. Can Do, Club H etc have these amenities and charge over $100 a month. If you are looking for a hardcore gym go to Diamond in Newark. Brick Haus has towel service,daycare, juice bar and Spinning, all of which you will not find anywhere else for $69. The other clubs will continue to lower their prices and then suddenly not be around any longer so I would only do month to month if you decide to join elsewhere in Jersey City. You wont get your money back if the smaller clubs go under.

Click on the district, and a map should pop up showing the exact boundaries.

http://www.cityofjerseycity.org/docs/neighborhoods.shtml

Since they obviously can't patrol EVERY street and note EVERY detail, a lot of what you can do without pre-approval, including painting, depends on the type of neighbors you have. Unfortunately, we are so paranoid of the snitches on our block now that we do everything by the book. One of our contractors recently told us that Mercer Street is particularly rife with uptight types who'll report people - even when they're doing work in the back and it's clearly not visible from a public right of way (and therefore not subject to approval). It doesn't stop them from trying. With all the problems JC has, you'd think people would have better things to do.

JadedJC,

Do you by chance know the exact historic boundaries are within Hamilton Park? One neighbor tells me were within, my other neighbor says were not. I made the mistake by calling City Hall a few years back...nobody knew...I got frustrated and hung up. I ended up using historic guidelines anyway to ensure we didn't have problems.

I'd just like to know for sure for future projects.

Thanks

At this point, I don't think we can go anywhere but ...well, UP, from the current paint choice. We'll cover up the metallic and then deal w/ the Historic folks!

If your place is in the historic district, you'll need to have the Historic Preservation Nazi sign off on the new color. You'll have to submit color samples, etc. They can send you an application. Believe me, we made the mistake of making a slight change to our facade, and next thing we knew, we were hit with a summons and had to go through the whole headache of proposing a remedy before the entire commission. You can't so much as change a doorknob without the Nazi signing off on it. If you are in a historic district and have managed to go uncited so far, then you're lucky that your neighbors aren't snitches. Mine are - they're always reporting people they think are doing something amiss, historic-wise. That is soooo NOT cool!

Keeping it is a nice sentiment, but unfortunately we'll probably be selling soon---and I don't know how marketable my space stairs would be...

Eireegal, the story about your staircase-to-the-future is so touching, I vote you keep the silver paint!

eeriegal,

Also terribly sorry about for your loss.

Good luck with your painting project!

No..no offense taken. Please...you made me laugh...come on, it's hilarious. When I saw them painting it I wanted to scream..but both of them are grieving (father-in-law, brother-in-law) and want so much to help me out---I just couldn't tell them to stop. So I let it go and like I said, it's provided some much needed levity around here. We've had some fun with it...and at this point, that's a good thing. Hopefully none of you have gone blind as a result!

Like I said in my original post, I didn't mean to insult you...

I am sorry to hear about your loss.

sincerley,
Your foot in mouth neighbor

Thanks for the Benjamin Moore listing..and yes, I AM PICKING OUT THE PAINT this time....and I think we'll go with a greyish-white or pearl...something a LITTLE less..ah, "flashy".

Come on, you KNOW you guys just wish you were bold enough to paint your stoop metallic silver! Believe me, amidst all the craziness that's going on in my life (2 kids under 3, recently widowed....etc...), my Roswell-like abduction steps have provided me with some much needed comic relief. I'm going to make sure we take some family photos on them tonight before they get painted (hopefully) tomorrow....

LOL. That is too funny! They are the conversation piece for that block.

Your siding is brownish, right? Go for a Cream/Pearl color..I like Benjamin Moore's historic colors...I bet you'll find one there.

Now...don't go making fun of my disco steps!!! It IS my house...and there's a story to those LOVELY steps!

You guys know I lost my husband a few weeks back..and well, that gorgeous space color was the handiwork of my very well-meaning (and apparently colorblind) father-in-law and brother-in-law. I'm almost virtually BLINDED every time I walk outside and have noticed several of you checking yourself out in the reflection....

(I'm surprised the historic police haven't given me a citation yet....)

Also...there's a gem on 7th...by the corner of Monmouth. Not kidding at all..the front porch is MAGENTA.

Eeriegal,

Whatever you do, do not use the house on Erie between 3rd & 4th as an inspiration! I do not believe Metalic Silver is on the Historic Color list... (I hope this is not your house, if so I am sorry )

You can look at Benjamin Moore Historic Color Chart on the below link or take a ride down to Tsgonia Paint on Grand Street / Communipaw and pickup some color samples to test a few out before you commit.


http://www.benjaminmoore.ca/colours/historical.aspx

Can somebody let me know how I go about finding out which paint color I can use to paint our front stoop? I've tried to ask my neighbors, but no one seems to be able to give me the answer...I need to know by tomorrow, I have able-bodied painters standing ready! I'm looking for a off-white or light grey color, if you happen to know what kind I can use, I would appreciate it...

Tks.

Quote:

First, in all likelihood, another decade will pass before the Shoprite / BJ's part of the strip mall is removed. The Metropolitan, even if it broke ground today, would probably take 3 years for construction. Furture buildings have not even been officially proposed, other than the architect's masterplan for the site. They are probably nothing more than a dot on a map.

Second, I think its more likely that Shoprite will be driven out of business before it comes time to demolish the building. The reason I say this is that while area demographics continue to change-- specifically, higher incomes-- Shoprite continues to offer low quality produce, poor customer service, and lacks many of the amenities of modern mega-marts. At the same time several new grocery stores are planned. Newport is getting a high end grocery store in the Shore Club, which I think will attract most of Newport's population. A&P recently modernized their location. Finally, LHN will also have a grocery store in about 18 to 24 months.

We need to get Arnie over here and do a "Shame on You" segment on all of these thugs mascarading as politicians.

How many times do we have to read about this Bullsh*t?